What is Web 2.0?
I have heard the term Web 2.0 used several times over the past several months. I kind of gathered what it meant from the context in which the term was being used. However, it was only until the last couple weeks that I actually took the time to do some research to get a concrete definition on what the term really meant. I found out that the there really is no concrete definition for the term. From what I read I learned that Web 2.0 refers to the second wave of internet innovation. There are several characteristics that distinguish Web 2.0 from the bubble days of the late 90s.
Web 1.0 was a static web where websites would provide information and surfers would consume it. However, Web 2.0 is a more dynamic and functional web, with a greater emphasis on user generated content and social networking, where everyday surfers actually participate in creating the web. This is acomplished with newly popularized technologies such as blogging, wikis, rss, padcasting, and AJAX. This all pretty exciting stuff. I am look forward with enthusiasm to the future of the internet.
I hate to say it, but “web 2.0″ is not only totally nondescript, but completely nonsensical. It makes no sense to give something like the Internet a version system. After all, who determines when 2.0 is official released? ?Web 2.0? is basically a marketing word that will go the way of the ?information superhighway? and ?cyberspace? when people get sick of it.
Love the technology, hate the term.
Jordy,
It is true that the term “Web 2.0″ is nondescriptive and nonsensical, but since it has come to describe the period of internet’s evolution that we are currently in I don’t mind using it, after all it is just a term. If another term were to be popularized I wouldn’t mind using it. Do you have any suggestions for a term that is more descriptive? What is really important is not really the term, but the technology that it is describes. I’m with you completely in loving the technology.
I love the term Web 2.0, Why hate it? At least there is a term we can use to describe this dynamic change we are experiencing.